Heart of a Nobody
by Falconcry
Summary: The tale of how Roxas came to be under the watchful eye of Organization XIII, unable to remember anything of his past, or who he was before.


It had been dark for a long time now, sleeping peacefully behind closed eyelids without much knowledge of whom or what it was. Well, it knew it was alive in some respect. It could breath and it felt a heartbeat, but somehow it knew it wasn't its own, it always felt… shared somehow. But it was always content to rest inside the life it knew it was attached to, never curious about what was beyond the shallow breathing or the rhythmic thump of the heart that it always faintly felt.

Maybe it was years or mere moments that it was held in its small sphere of limited sentience, but one day everything changed. There was a great flash of ever-changing light and it felt a sudden upheaval all around it, as if someone was shoving it out of the safety of the darkness. For a brief moment it felt nothing as the heartbeat disappeared and then it felt breathing again, but this time the breathing felt much closer and penetrating and somehow it knew the action was its own.

Startled by this revelation, it forgot how to breathe for a single, terrifying moment before it pushed air in and out again and the cycle returned. One thing puzzled it, however: the heartbeat was missing, so it stilled its breathing again and strained to listen for it. Nothing, not even a faint vibration to reassure it that the heart had ever existed. It began to breathe again, slightly confused by its absent heartbeat, but it didn't pay it much mind. It must've been unnecessary.

For the first time it realized the numb sensation of displacement had vanished that had always barred its way to true feeling, and it became acutely aware that something very hard and cold was pressed against part of it. Curiosity overcame its young mind, and, for the first time, opened its eyes. The horizon was cut in half, one side stark white and the other jet black, but it had to close its eyes against the dizzying colors for a moment until its head stopped spinning and it opened its eyes again.

It sat up, suddenly feeling very cold as it looked around. Shattered multicolored slabs of glass decorated the floor around it, adding splashes of color to the white floor, some smaller than its fist and other bigger than its whole body. It turned its head as it got used to moving its limbs, and stopped short. There was someone else here and he was staring back with wide, deep sapphire eyes. Gathering itself, it rose unsteadily on it two legs, trying to find the center of balance but fell flat on its face. The boy copied his motion as it rose again, this time able to stand without wobbling too badly and tried walking. Three steps later it found itself on the ground, as did the blue-eyed boy, but it pressed on and managed to master its movement capabilities and began to walk towards the boy, who did the same.

They stood in front of each other, it feeling the sapphire eyes of the other boy boring into it. The boy had spiked up golden blonde hair with pale white skin, and was only wearing a chain necklace with a silver X pendant on it. Reacting more out of impulse than common sense, it reached out to touch the necklace, but only felt cold glass beneath his fingers. Thoroughly confused, it only stared and the boy did the same. It moved its hand off the glass; the boy copied its action.

Whatever it did the boy did as well, and sudden realization crept slowly up its spine: it was him. _He _had those blue eyes; _he _had the blonde hair; that was _his _necklace. That mirror image… was just his reflection. He gasped as a wave of jealousy surged up his throat, stronger than anything he had ever felt before. That image was just a mere shadow, a copy He drew back his fist and watched with rage as the mirror image did the same, and let it fly forward with all his might…

_A lie. _The words flashed through his mind as his arm crashed through the mirror with a high pitched ringing that made his ears throb, but he didn't care as the glass splintered into hundreds of pieces that shattered onto the ground. Crystalline mirror parts littered the ground as he stood there, shaking and holding his bloodied arm with his face contorted, a new feeling seizing him; unbearable, hot, throbbing, and discomfort. Pain.

He opened his eyes as clear tears began to leak down the sides of his face, his entire forearm covered in blood, _his_ blood, captured in this sensation of pain! A scream echoed out loud, _his _scream as the pain intensified, the salt from his tears making the wound sting, and he continued to scream. Voices rose up around him in a cacophony, all of them whispering the same thing: _Nobody. You're Nobody._ He hoped his scream would drown them out, but it was a vain hope, his anguished cry seemed only to make them louder as the force of the whispers drove him to his knees. He covered his ears and screwed his eyes shut, eardrums aching.

He wanted to get out of here, he needed to leave this placed, damned by spirits and echoes, screaming, _screaming_…

* * *

When he next opened his eyes he was on his knees, but three things were different. One, there were clothes covering his body, their feel natural against his skin; two, his arm was completely healed without a trace of blood ever being there; and three, he was in a different place. He warily scanned his surroundings, appearing to be in a foyer of some sort with staircases on either side of it, dimly lit. He dropped his arms to his sides and began to get up when a loud creaking noise brought his attention ahead of him.

Someone had opened the two doors at the front, their silhouette standing in the middle of a large rectangle of light. He squinted as the figure drew closer, boots ringing out on the flagstones and its presence filled him with a sense of solemn dread. He realized he was shaking as the black hooded figure stood silently over him, the dark cowl of its hood hiding its face as it stared down at him. It offered out a gloved hand, but the boy only stared at it until a commanding and deep voice rose from the depths of the drawn hood. "Come."

He rose and dumbly followed the dark man out through the rectangle of light and out into the sunlit world. The boy stood frozen, eyes widening as he took in the lush green foliage of the trees and grass, the magnificent blue of the sky mingled with streaks of peach and orange captivated him, knowing only blacks and whites before. "Are you going to stare at the scenery or discover your purpose?" It was the deep voice again, and the boy flicked his eyes over to the black-garbed man who had stopped walking and half turned to look back at him.

The boy hurried along and fell into step with the man's long strides and ventured beyond the tall irons gates, and when the boy threw a look back over his shoulder, he saw that a large white mansion stood behind him. The man turned and closed the gates with a bang that made the boy jump, then turned to face him and drew back the hood that was concealing his face. Long silver hair framed a deeply tan face that harbored amber, tiger-like eyes. A smile that didn't reach his eyes split his visage as he drew back his arm. "I brought you here. I can give you purpose…"

He waved his arm in front of the nameless boy, four floating translucent letters forming a single word: SORA. Another wave of the hand and the letters began to swirl in a tight circle around the boy, gaining speed with each revolution, and when they were spinning so fast that the word as just a blur, a calculated movement of the hand struck out faster than an adder. A huge X sprang up right in the middle of the word, cutting it in half and stopping the letters mid-spin.

"Your new name." The man said, eyes glinting dangerously as he waited for the boy's reaction. Calm sapphire eyes read the word in front of him, and the boy spoke his first word.

"Roxas."


End file.
